The present invention relates to electronic effects for musical instruments. More particularly the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for matching the tone of a musical instrument being played with the recorded tone of a like instrument.
Effects devices for modifying the tone of a musical instrument are known. Examples of such devices include delay devices, distortion devices and reverberation devices. These devices are typically connected either to the output of the musical instrument or its amplifier, and are used to modify the tone in order to make it more pleasing and interesting. These devices typically include one or more manually operable controls for adjusting and controlling various parameters associated with each device. A user adjusts each of these controls to achieve the particular sound or musical tone desired.
When learning to play an instrument in the particular style of a specific musician or group, a student will often desire to match the tone of his or her musical instrument with that of the music being learned. This typically involves trial and error adjustment of the individual manual controls for one or more tone modification devices until the desired tone is achieved. This difficult and time-consuming process makes it almost impossible for the student to match the tone of his instrument to that which he is attempting to learn.
As set forth in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/136,651, filed Oct. 14, 1993 and entitled INTERACTIVE MUSICAL INSTRUMENT INSTRUCTION SYSTEM, the contents of which are incorporated herein, a musical instrument instruction system has been developed in which instructional material is presented in a way that is both educational and entertaining, thus encouraging the student to practice and experiment with new playing techniques and styles. The musical instrument instruction system includes the steps of providing both audio and video instructional materials on an electronic storage medium, and utilizing a computer to select instructional materials to be presented from those stored on the electronic storage medium. Delivery parameters are selected by the student to provide a desired playback of the selected instructional material, and then a selected musical piece is played back in accordance with the selected delivery parameters.
In a preferred form, both audio and video instructional materials are provided on a CD-ROM electronic storage medium. The computer is utilized to access the data on the CD-ROM and, initially, the student selects either a song to be played or a musical drill to be practiced.
In selecting the delivery parameters to customize the playback of the selected instructional material, the student selects whether or not to display an expert musician playing a selected musical piece in a video display concurrently with audio output of the musical piece by the computer. The student is further provided the opportunity to control the tempo of the musical out generated by the computer without affecting the pitch thereof. To accomplish this, the computer utilizes a sample-and-hold circuit which receives input from a waveform frame buffer and a hold time buffer, to control the playback tempo. This efficiently provides the desired musical output while minimizing the memory storage requirements to the computer itself.
When playing back the selected musical piece in accordance with the selected delivery parameters, the musical notation or tablature of the musical piece is displayed. Moreover, the particular note or chord of the notation or tablature being played is highlighted for the relative duration of the note or chord. The student is also provided the opportunity to select whether or not a video display of the manner of playing a musical instrument will be shown with the displayed notation or tablature.
The musical instrument instruction system combines musical output of a practice instrument with musical output generated by the computer corresponding to the selected instructional material. In this regard, the process for learning to play a musical instrument includes the steps of mixing musical output of the practice instrument with musical output of the computer. Background music may also be provided by the computer, and the student is able to control the mix of background music relative to foreground music, as well as control the mixture of musical output of the practice instrument relative to musical output of the computer.
In order to accomplish this, an effects device is needed which is programmable and which allows a student to automatically match the tone of his or her musical instrument with that of the recorded music. Such a device should provide for the professional augmentation of the output of the student's instrument, so that the ultimate musical output from the speakers will be a faithful emulation of the sound that the musician or group achieves in concert or on recordings. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides other related advantages.